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Systems – The Best Online Tools to Run a Small Business on the Internet (Part 5)

Over the years, many of our clients at Anant Corporation have asked us about our recommendations for different tools to help them grow their business. In this fifth installment, I will discuss some of the best online tools that small businesses can use respecting the operations and infrastructure part of their business.

Operations & Infrastructure

These three web services offer videoconferencing capabilities to modern enterprises. Gotomeeting requires a paid subscription, but allows screen-sharing, is easy to use, and allows up to 25 people to participate. Skype theoretically allows up to 25 people and is free with an affordable premium option, but experiences connection issues. Google Hangouts is limited to 10 people, but is free, robust, and can be shared on Youtube and with an unlimited number of nonparticipating viewers.

Join.me is a simple and powerful web application for long-distance conferences. Screen-sharing and mobile support come with the default package, while upgrading to a Pro or Enterprise package allows one to expand conferences to up to 250 people, record meetings, and enjoy unlimited audio.

DropBox is a well-known file storage service in the cloud. Facilitating file-sharing and file-syncing, DropBox offers 2 GB of storage for free. Businesses pay for the service based on number of employees.

Evernote stores and syncs notes of all forms—text, images, webpages, and audio. The service offers both free and premium accounts, the latter featuring greater upload limits, better security, and collaborative notebook editing. Enterprise executives can make effective use of Evernote’s omnipresence and flexible note-taking.

Google Apps is the one-stop shop for the modern enterprise, combining features from many of the other sites on this list into a single suite. It can set up company email accounts, store collaboratively editable documents online, schedule events on a calendar, and host video meetings through Hangout. Google offers a 30 day free trial, after which it charges per user/employee. This scalable pricing is optimal for startups and small enterprises.

LastPass is an innovative tool that centralizes and remembers login passwords for you. It can also generate strong, random passwords, give internet security advice, and implement multifactor authentication. Premium and Enterprise accounts add mobile support and access options to set up and handle multiple employees.

Trello organizes events and projects with a Kanban system—managers advance cards through lists as their associated tasks progress. Trello offers free accounts for personal use and paid business-class accounts for enterprises.

Cloudberry backs up data across a diverse variety of cloud services, offering a flexible range of software and prices for differently-sized businesses. In addition to protecting data from loss, Cloudberry can also encrypt and compress.

OwnCloud is an open-source web service that provides collaborative document editing and sharing functionality as well as syncing across multiple devices. It has also expanded with other management tools, including calendars and to-do lists.

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Modern Enterprise – Business of Business Today

As It Changes is published by the boutique internet architecture and strategy consulting firm Anant Corporation.

We publish this blog to inspire, educate, and empower the next generation of modern entrepreneurs around the world.

We named our blog "as it changes," to reflect the reality that the business of business today is always changing. We've learned lessons by experimenting, working for our clients, and good honest mistakes while helping build modern enterprises around the world.